Why Amavubi has limited success in AFCON qualifiers

Ever since Amavubi stars made history by qualifying for African Cup of Nations in 2004, the national team has failed to qualify again for Africa’s most lucrative soccer event. Though the government has been investing heavily in national team programs such as preparations, air tickets and others to mention but a few, several factors have contributed to the decline in performance of the team. One of the main reasons is lack of experienced and talented head coach to run national team duties. In 2004, Rwanda qualified under Serbian born Ratomir Djukovic who was later recruited by Ghana to guide the Black Stars at the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany. Ratomir and Ntagwabira combination was the best ever to handle national football team. Both had varying qualities in coaching and combined well to produce tangible results that helped Rwanda to qualify for the first ever Nations Cup finals. Unfortunately, Ratomir caught an eye for bigger teams and left. Ntagwabira also lost stamina. It should have been better if the duo had stayed together longer. For many years now, Amavubi Stars have failed to secure a foreign head coach on permanent basis for more than three years and no coach has participated in more than one AFCON qualifying campaigns. Every coach comes with a new system, new players and forms a seemingly different squad. In addition to not having a permanent coach, Amavubi players have not been regular as well. For example many national team players who participated at 2004 AFCON in Tunisia have either retired from football or are no longer called upon any more. One of the former Amavubi outstanding players is Angolan born Elias Manamana remembered for his thunderous free-kick during the opening game of 2004 AFCON against hosts Tunisia. Such players need to keep longer in the squad so as to share experience and skills with his teammates and even young players learn much from them. Even the likes of Ndikumana Katauti and Olivier Karekezi have been dearly missed, for their vast experience. Successful teams like keeping intelligent players around for future team development. This is why footballing nations like England, France, Spain, Germany and Argentina possess players, who participated in 2002 World Cup until they get suitable replacements. The Amavubi team, which was involved in 2006 AFCON and World Cup qualifying campaigns, it was different from the one that participated in 2008 AFCON and 2010 World Cup campaigns. Here you expect a team to miss winning conditions like good coordination and experience among others. Very few teams can win games if continuity, coordination and experience are missing. A team without long serving players lacks leadership on and off the pitch. This is why Amavubi should retain its outstanding players for future team development. Worth to mention is delayed youth development initiatives that largely contributed to all subsequent under achievements from the senior side. Like in many East African countries, youth soccer development programs have been ignited in recent years. Rwanda had no regular junior national teams and sometimes could use senior national team players to represent in under-17 and under-20 categories respectively. In the past, players could be selected based on their heights, and performance with their local clubs a condition that was detrimental to the team’s future development. That did not yield long term results. This means the national team lacked source of players for future selection and call ups. Today, the government of Rwanda and football association should be applauded for the establishment and subsequent rise of soccer academies that gave hope for future generations in our football. Rwanda has different players for under-23 and under-17 that can rise to future national team call-ups. A good performance from the under-17 national team against top teams like Ivory Coast and Mali means that Rwanda will be able to compete with the best teams on the continent in a near future. Rwanda will now represent Africa at Fifa Under-17 World Cup in Mexico, a sign of international recognition. josephmunich06@yahoo.co.uk